Sarah’s book

Being Sarah is Sarah Horton’s personal story about breast cancer, published in October 2010. Sarah’s honest and forthright opinions on breast cancer have attracted considerable press interest.

Sarah appeared on Radio 4‘s Woman’s Hour with Jenni Murray, and live radio interviews on Radio Five Live, BBC Radio Merseyside and BBC Radio Hereford and Worcester. Has appeared several times on Sky News Live TV. The book has been Highly Commended by the 2011 British Medical Association (BMA) Medical Book Awards as ‘well-written and intelligent’.

Breast cancer statistics in the UK are alarming, and the politics surrounding the illness perplexing. Mortality rates are falling, but diagnoses are rising. One in every eight women in the UK (2011 statistic) can now expect to be diagnosed with breast cancer at some time in her life, and – while we’re getting better at surviving – it’s happening more and more frequently. Sarah Horton is one of the 47,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK every year. This is her story.

As the shock of diagnosis subsides, Sarah starts looking for a treatment plan that suits her, searching for choices, and asks questions about all the medical drugs and treatment offered to her, from chemotherapy to hormone treatment. There are so many questions: in a field where so little is certain, what’s best for Sarah? Why do we concentrate on cure rather than prevention? Is our terror about breast cancer sanitised by the ‘pink’ movement? And will I die? And there aren’t always answers.

From the minutiae of getting through each day to the wider feelings of rage, hope, sadness, fear, loss, joy and helplessness, Being Sarah is about life, death, questions, options and choices.

Gayle Sulik, acclaimed author of Pink Ribbon Blues says,

“This true story brings into sharp focus our perception of breast cancer, its politics and prevention. This is the book that brings many of the issues I raise in Pink Ribbon Blues about breast cancer culture and industry to life in the world of a woman diagnosed with breast cancer.”

Buy Being Sarah online here.